An authentication domain (also referred to herein simply as a “domain”) is a set of resources that requires a requesting entity to be authenticated prior to gaining access to resources stored securely within the domain. For example, an authentication domain may consist of information technology (IT) resources (e.g. data, server computer systems, software services, etc.) belonging to a business organization, and require that employees of the organization first be authenticated (e.g. by logging on with their user name and password or in some other fashion), prior to being given access to any of the domain's secure resources.
Authentication domains are typically separate and independent. Accordingly, if a user is able to access multiple authentication domains, they must authenticate to each one of the authentication domains through a separate transaction or process. Additionally, different credentials and/or processes may be needed to authenticate a user or users to different authentication domains.